Irish Proxy Server – How to use an Ireland Proxy to Watch RTE in 2023

Need an Irish IP Address to Watch RTE from Ireland > Irish Proxy Server

I have had a few emails asking me if it is possible to use an  Irish proxy or VPN program to watch other channels.  Basically they want to know the answer to the question –  “how can I watch Irish TV in UK or Europe“.  Now as you probably know if you try and stream most programs from any Irish TV station like RTE Player from outside Ireland you’ll get blocked.  This is because the websites check that you’ve got an Irish IP address before being allowed access.  To be fair you can sometimes watch some shows but any premium content like Hurling for example will be blocked automatically.

The solution is to hide your real location by getting an Irish IP address to use.   All you need to do it route your connection through an Irish proxy or VPN service to look like an Irish resident.

First a Word about Finding an Ireland Proxy from a Proxy List

If you use the search engines to locate an Irish proxy there’s a good chance you’ll stumble across a site like one of these –

It will usually include a list of servers, their location and some information about how they’re set up.  On many you’ll find assessments of how secure they are – even categorized into different classes like elite, anonymous and so on.  The suggestion is that these are safe, available proxies which you can use completely free of charge.  Unfortunately this is not quite the truth and it’s not a great idea to use any of these.

These proxy list sites are prepared by using software called scrapers which search the internet checking for open ports on proxy enabled servers.   The problem is that there’s no checks or validation of any of these servers, they’re simply located and added to the list.

This means many of these proxies are completely unsafe to use, some will have been left open accidentally so you’ll be effectively trespassing.  Others will have been hacked or be controlled by hackers and cyber criminals to steal personal information and data and distribute malware to those using them.  Some will be legitimate free resources but it’s almost impossible to detect which are safe and which aren’t.

Even if you were prepared to accept these risks in order to hide your real IP address there’s another important reason why they’re pretty useless and that’s speed.  If you think your web browser is slow, try running it through one of these free proxies and you’ll see it reduced to a crawl especially if you use popular proxies in places like the United States.  As for streaming video from online TV channels they are far to slow to work properly.

Basically free proxies are not worth using any more, plus there’s a real risk of infecting your computer with malware or worse.

Using a Proxy Provider with Irish Proxies

The reality is much like life you get what you pay for.  No-one is going to pay for servers, bandwidth and infrastructure that anyone can use free of charge.  If you want a decent service with security and speed then you need to get one of the many inexpensive VPN services which are available.

So I thought I’d try a few out, the one I’m trying here is accessing a station called RTE player which is an Irish TV Channel. I normally use Identity Cloaker to access this channel, as RTE recently updated the flash player it uses for RTE player which blocks just using a simple Irish proxy.

Identity Cloaker is a VPN based service, and one of the few that will allow you to watch RTE in UK or anywhere outside Ireland. Can you Watch RTE in the UK or US ? Well first of all I had to test it, I tried to access RTE from the UK first without an Irish proxy but it didn’t work too well. Here’s the screen I got.

As you can see it detected  that I wasn’t trying to access from the Republic or Northern Ireland by my IP address and so blocked my access. Irish proxyNot a great surprise, seemingly everything you do online nowadays is tailored to your location and crucially your IP address. Although this is very annoying if you happen to be living or working abroad. The person who asked me to access this was a student from Ireland studying in the US, she just wanted to watch the Late Show on RTE.

Now Using an Irish Proxy Server for RTE Player

Anyway now I have a chance to access the same page after connecting through one of Identity Cloaker’s Irish VPN servers.

irish proxy rte player

Here’s the program, it’s very simple and is not much more than a little drop down box that sits in your Task bar.  This is the PC version here, but the Mac version is very similar.  You simply select one of the Irish proxies and select connect. Of course if I’m just surfing anonymously, which country is not that important, but to bypass the IP restrictions of most media sites online you have to select the right country.

So to watch the BBC iPlayer in Ireland you need to choose a UK server, Hulu and all the US stations need a US server and so on.   The network is growing fast so you have access to a lot of the worlds media now with this program. In fact they now have servers in the following locations Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italian, Dutch, Japan, USA, UK to name just a few – plus unlike many companies you get access to all of them for your subscription.

Many companies just let you have access to one country and charge extra for access to the others.   However if you want to watch RTE then you’ll need a company who has an Irish IP address list. There is some incredible content available over the world through these connections – try checking out the US TV channels, the Canadian or Australian there are loads of fantastic content.

I actually use the French servers a lot as my kids can practice their French by watching their favorite shows on M6 Replay (the French Media Player).  Others are the amazing Pandora, the online jukebox which is restricted to the US. Anyway here we’re just concerned with using  the Irish proxy in order to connect to the RTE player web site. You’ll need to restart your browser when you  connect through a proxy server or VPN. So I select an Irish proxy and restarted my browser.   You can see the change straight away, what you see is decided by your IP address, my home page has switched to Google.IE and all my search results would now be based on Irish results.

This would happen whilst I was connected to the Irish proxy by default.  But what I wanted to check was if I still got blocked from the RTE Player web site. Well I went to the RTE player web site and it worked straight away,  here’s the same web page as above when I accessed via the Irish proxy server.

Here you can see I was able to access the RTE player with no restrictions because it believed I had an Irish IP address like this.  If you’re outside the country and not using some Irish proxy or VPN then you’d get the international version which allows limited access.

Just as I can watch BBC iPlayer, ITV, Channel 4 by choosing a UK server or Hulu, NBC and Pandora selecting a US Server. Here’s a method using an Irish proxy well actually a VPN.

Once you see how easy it is to use and the amazing shows that you can stream from all across the globe it will open up the internet so much more. You will never get blocked based on location at all, just as long as Identity Cloaker have a server for it. They’re definitely the best choice for an Irish server.

Try it out, the subscriptions are monthly and you can cancel whenever you like. Most of the other TV proxy companies are charging more than they do for a solitary country –

Check out the 10 day trial here first.

FAQ – Ireland Proxy Service

We had to stop the comments on this post as there was so much spam. The old ones are below but here’s a few more questions we’ve received since then.

Do You Still use Identity Cloaker to get an IP Address from Ireland?

I still use Identity Cloaker and it has continued to work very well with RTE (13 years ago). However like most of use I use mobile devices more than my computer and the Cloaker software works best on a computer. So I use NordVPN more now, it has plenty of Irish IP addresses and has apps on most common devices – you can check it out here – Latest discounts on NordVPN.

Does Switching to an Ireland IP address cause any issues?

Yes it can do simply because of the huge number of websites which use geo-blocking in 2022. When you’re connected to a Irish IP you may find that you get blocked from sites you normally use when connected. For example I can use RTE with an Irish IP address but I’ll get blocked from the BBC when connected. You either have to drop the connection or switch to a server in the right location.

Is Changing your IP Address/Using a VPN Illegal?

Definitely not, at least not in the vast majority of countries. It is illegal in Iraq and North Korea and in some countries like China, Turkey and Russia you’re only supposed to use ‘approved VPN services’ – although millions use them anyway. Most companies install VPN client software as standard on their laptops and mobile devices simply because it keeps their data private especially when travelling. Using a VPN is not only legal but in fact a very sensible security practice when using secure sites online.

Can you Access another location or country with a VPN?

Yes, most VPN services offer servers in lots of different countries as part of their standard subscription. You simply connect to the country you require and you’ll temporarily have an IP address from that country.

 

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18 thoughts on “Irish Proxy Server – How to use an Ireland Proxy to Watch RTE in 2023”

  1. Just checked and RTE Player has changed a lot since this post was first written in 2009. However it’s still working ok when I checked today. It does change though, so always test out on the 10 day trial before paying for any of the longer subscriptions.

    Reply
  2. @lookhere

    I'm not sure haven't used Unotelly for years. RTE routinely blocks IP addresses for VPN and proxies – if you can in Unotelly switch to another Irish IP address. Just tried it using Identity Cloaker and it works ok.

    Reply
  3. Great article. The DNS option is better than using a VPN regarding content streaming because you can achieve direct connection with the media station ex. RTE and avoid the “middle-man”. Personally, I am using UnoTelly which is similar to Smart DNS Proxy. Perhaps you should check UnoTelly as well if you haven’t done so.

    Reply
  4. Haven't updated this post for a while. There were some problems watching RTE player over proxies and VPNs. Anyway Identity Cloaker has had a new update and some new Irish servers so thought I'd try it out again.

    Just checked and RTE Player is working fine 02/02/13.

    Reply
  5. Just been doing some checking on this because of some strange results. What RTE seem to be doing is blocking an IP address temporarily if it detects multiple connections.

    So an IP address might work for a while then stop working, then be ok.

    So basically you're not going to get a 100% reliable service for RTE player outside Ireland from anyone at the moment. What you would need to do is find the VPN with the most Irish IP addresses so you can swap and change.

    Identity Cloaker have about 20 Irish addresses and Overplay have about 4 I think.

    Hope that helps

    Reply
  6. Hi Tiarnan,

    Thanks for the heads up.

    But it seems to be working for me – streaming now through Ireland 3 and IE from the UK.

    Try using the Ireland 3 server and IE as your browser

    I'll check the other servers out later as rushing out now.

    Good Luck,

    WG

    Reply
  7. Hi Jen,

    Well you can download content from BBc Iplayer just using Identity Cloaker, you just need to use the VPN mode and the download button on the Iplayer screen (proxy mode won't work for this)

    I'm not sure that you'll be able to save RTE content at the moment, it's only currently offered in a streaming format.

    Don't think Nero Liquid would help you in this instance.

    Hope this helps.

    Reply
  8. Hi TimeHorse,

    I had a lot of spam comments when I enabled anonymous posting I must have lost your question then – please accept my apologies !

    Ok you have a few options to solve your problem. You can relay the proxy but only if you use the VPN mode and use something like Netcat to create a relay.

    But I think you have simpler options,

    1) there is a Beta version of IDC for the MAC. It's based on an application called Tunnelblick – works well but you need to set it up manually. If you want to try it – I have the files and instructions drop me an email using the contact link above and I'll send you them. I'm pretty hopeless with MACs though so for support you'd better ask Identity Cloaker themselves

    2) If you're mainly interested in the UK servers for Iplayer you can use the proxy directly from any browser. You won't get the encryption and SSH tunnel but it works just fine for BBC Iplayer.

    Just select any of the Identity Cloaker UK4 Proxy IP addresses and use port 4040 and you'll connect straight through.

    Hope that helps 🙂

    Reply
  9. You probably didn't see my question from before, but simply it was this: Identity Cloaker sends your data encrypted through the Internet to one of its private proxy servers. It requires Windows software to work. How does that software interface with IE / Firefox, etc.? Is it setting up a proxy in the Windows Web API (and a plugin for Firefox which uses its own API to connect to the web since Microsoft's is buggy and doesn't support SNI among other protocols) like Fiddler, or is it something lower-level? If it's a local proxy, have you ever tested running the Identity Cloaker on one machine and then browsing on a different machine on your local subnet that proxies all of it's traffic through the one running Identity Cloaker? Is that possible? I'm not talking about setting up a public proxy so that anyone can send packets to Identity Cloaker through my paid account — that would be stupid. I mean within my subnet so that my Mac or my Apple TV or my Linux Box can take advantage of Identity Cloaker and I don't need to run Windows.

    Reply

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